Chestnut plant named &#39;au premier&#39;

ABSTRACT

The disease resistant ‘AU Premier’ seguin offers food availability for wildlife over an extended period. A single plant drops nuts for a 2-3 month period. Nut size varies with season and the average weight is between 1 and 1.5 grams. The plant does not bloom until mid-May, therefore late spring frosts do not damage the flowers. In most seasons, the ‘AU Premier’ seguin cultivar will have 2-3 flushes of vegetative growth. The nut quality is similar to the Chinese chestnut in that it is high in starch and sugar (40-42%) and low in fats. ‘AU Premier’ seguin begins to drop its crop of medium sized nuts about September 8 and nut drop continues until mid-November. ‘AU Premier’ seguin is an excellent companion cultivar for ‘AU Encore’ seguin since the major nut drop for ‘AU Premier’ seguin occurs before the major nut drop period of ‘AU Encore’ seguin.

LATIN NAME OF THE GENUS AND SPECIES OF THE PLANT CLAIMED

Castanea P. Mill., Castanea seguinii.

VARIETY DENOMINATION

‘AU PREMIER’

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A Chinese chestnut planting was established at Auburn University,Auburn, Ala., from nuts collected in Hubei Province, P.R. China. Plantswere grown in containers under sprinkler irrigation at the main campusand selection were made for dwarfism, precocity, cold hardiness,everbearing, productivity, nut size and quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct sequin dwarfchestnut cultivar that is precocious, produces a heavy crop annually,begins nut drop about September 8 and continues through mid-November.The small nut size (1.3 g) and continuous nut drop over an extended timemakes the ‘AU Premier’ seguin an ideal high energy food for wildlife.The seguin nut size is ideal for consumption by quail and turkey. Itproduces nuts the year of establishment. The nuts are medium sizedseguin chestnut and not as large as Chinese chestnuts. The majority ofthe nuts from ‘AU Premier’ seguin drop before the majority of the nutsfrom ‘AU Encore’ Seguin drop. The ‘AU Premier’ and the ‘AU Encore’seguins are excellent companion cultivars as they both drop nuts over anextended period but the major nut drop period of the cultivars do notoverlap. The plant is not affected by chestnut gall wasp, chestnutblight or leaf spot. ‘AU Encore’ is disclosed in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. ______, filed on ______, and entitled “CHESTNUT PLANT NAMED ‘AUEncore’” [Attorney Docket No. AUB-07800], which is hereby incorporatedby reference.

The new cultivar is able to be asexually reproduced by budding orgrafting onto a seguin seedling rootstock. The unique characteristicscome true to form and are established and transmitted through succeedingasexual propagation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a photograph of a branch of a young tree of the ‘AU PREMIER’cultivar.

FIG. 2 is a photograph of a branch of a young tree of the ‘AU PREMIER’cultivar.

FIG. 3 is a photograph of a young tree of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 4 is a photograph of a young tree with an open bur showing nuts ofthe ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 5 is a photograph of a tree in bloom of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 6 is a photograph of a bloom on a shoot of the ‘AU PREMIER’cultivar.

FIG. 7 is a photograph of a branch of a tree of the ‘AU PREMIER’cultivar.

FIG. 8 is a photograph of a tree of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 9 is a photograph of nuts of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 10 is a photograph of nuts of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar.

FIG. 11 is a photograph of nuts of the ‘AU PREMIER’ cultivar and the ‘AUENCORE’ cultivar.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

Seguin chestnut, also spelled “sequin,” is one of two chestnut species,Castanea mollissima and C. seguinii, native to China. It grows as a bushor small tree and is commonly found throughout southeastern and centralChina. Seguin chestnut is a temperate species and its natural rangeextends from the Changjiang River region and southeastern China,northward to the southern Hubei province, southward to Guangdongprovince and westward to Sichuan and Guangxi provinces, a region whoseclimate is similar to that of the southeastern U.S.A. The plant bearsthree nuts per bur and the nut size is small (0.5-3 g). It has remainedas a noncultivated species in China. The wildly grown nuts and wood arenormally harvested by local farmers for food and fuel. The natural rangeof C. sequinii largely overlaps that of C. mollissima in southeasternand central China. Natural hybridization is able to occur andmorphologically distinguishing C. mollissima from seguinni has provendifficult in natural forests. One leaf trait, pubescence on theunderside of the leaves, has been studied and used for speciesidentification. Scale-like glandular trichomes are able to be observedon the underside of seguin chestnut leaves with a 10× hand lens, whilethe underside of Chinese chestnut leaves are pubescent. Despite manyefforts to use seguin as a dwarfing rootstock for commercial Chinesechestnut cultivars, it has not been successful due to the complete graftincompatibility between these two species.

Precocity. The plants normally flower at 2-15 months of age after seedgermination. It is not unusual for plants to flower as early as threeweeks. More than 90% of seedlings produced nuts in the first growingseason in Alabama when seeds, introduced from China, were planted.Sprouts resulting from cold damage, pruning or other plant injury bearfruit the first year of development. Plants growing in containers thathad the top portion of the plant killed during a snow storm had sproutsdevelop from the root system and produced a crop of nuts. In China, thespecies is subjected to yearly coppicing in most mountain areas forfirewood on which local farmers depend as fuel. The cut off plantsdevelop sprouts from the stump or root system when growth starts in thespring and produces a crop of nuts the same year. ‘AU Premier’ producesnuts the first growing season and on multiple vegetative flushes eachseason and has not exhibited any signs of cold injury.

Everbearing. The continuous flowering throughout the growing seasondescribed as ‘everbearing’ is an important characteristic of seguinchestnut. Twenty percent of plants of two populations collected inHubei, China, developed bisexual catkins at each new node throughout thegrowing season. The remaining 80% of the plants were sequentialflowering in that the plants produce a set of male and bisexual flowers,after an interval of vegetative growth, a set of flowers develop witheach new flush of growth.

‘AU Premier’ develops bisexual catkins at each node through the growingseason. The first burs mature and start dropping nuts during the firstto second week of September and nuts continue dropping through earlyNovember. The first bloom occurs in mid-May each season.

The species is resistant to Cryphonectria parasitica, a causal agent ofchestnut blight. Seguin is generally considered less susceptible to thechestnut gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu) than the Chinesechestnut because of its growing and flowering habits. No gall waspdamage has been detected on ‘AU Premier’ or any other seguin selectionsin Auburn tests even though some Chinese chestnut cultivars growing inthe same orchard exhibited gall wasp damage.

Some of the original seedlings had a leaf spot problem caused byColletotrichum gloeosporioides. Infected and defoliated plants werediscarded during the recurrent selection program. Leaf spot has not beenobserved on ‘AU Premier.’

The table below illustrates the specific differences between the ‘AUPREMIER’ cultivar and the ‘REVIVAL’ cultivar.

The botanical details of this new and distinctive variety of chestnuttree - with color definitions (except those in common color terms)referenced to Royal Horticultural Society's Colour Chart (RHS) and colorwas also determined using an electronic spectrophotometer to determinehue angle and chroma (spectrophotometer model CM-2002, Minolta CameraCo., Japan). ‘AU PREMIER’ CHESTNUT Tree: Size (at maturity) - smallHeight 5.8 meters, canopy width 5.4 meters, canopy area 29.17 sq. metersVigor - vigorous Trunk: Form - trunk upright, tree shape broadly oval;branches low and dense, spreading. Texture relatively smooth Color ofbark - Greyed-green, RHS 197A, Chroma C* 15.77, hue angle 89.54Branches: Form - strong Texture - relatively smooth Lenticels - few,small Branching habit - low, dense and spreading. Color - new wood:brown, RHS N200A, Chroma C* 11.48, hue angle 72.68; mature wood:greyed-green, RHS 197A, Chroma C* 10.92, hue angle 85.69 Foliage:Quantity - abundant Density - dense Leaves: Size - small. Length (cm)18.1 (14.1-20.7) [20] width (cm) 5.1 (4.1-6.6) [20] leaf ratio 3.6(2.6-4.4) [20] Shape - lance-oblong to narrowly elliptic leaf tip-acuminate to occasionally acute leaf base- cuneate; oblique Thickness -thin. Leaf venation 10 pinnate: 2° ± parallel, not prominent abaxiallyTexture - smooth weakly coriaceous (thin) Margin - coarsely serrate,ascending teeth Petiole - shoot length (cm) 0.6 (0.4-1.0) [20] Petiolepubescence- glabrous occasionally sparse simple hairs Color - adaxialsurface, glabrous blade, glabrous veins, medium green moderately shiny,RHS 147 A Chroma C* 11.06, hue angle 117.41 abaxial surface - smallscale-like trichomes on blade, concentrated along midrib, sparse simplehairs on main veins light to medium green, RHS 147B, Chroma C* 21.28,hue angle 104.11 Bloom: Amount of bloom - heavy, at each node on currentgrowth Color - at anthesis, RHS 161D greyed-yellow group, 157Dgreen-white group, 155C white group Blooming period - late, full bloommid-May. Age at which tree starts flowering - early, first year Maleflower - Catkin length (cm) - 11.5 (8.0-14.0) [5] Male flower - stamennumber per catkin - 12.1 (9-15) [20] Female flower - flower number perbur - 3.0 Female flower - style number per flower 8.3 (6-10) [20] Crop:Bearing - annual, very precocious Productivity - prolific Ripeningperiod - early September - mid November Distribution of nuts on tree -well distributed, chain of burs on all new vegetative growth Tenacity -burs open while on tree and nuts are easily released and fall. Hull:Description - spiny, round bur, average spine length 11.4 mm Size - (mm)average length 38.7, width 31.5, depth 29.6 Number of nuts - normally 3per bur Dehiscence - splits easily and opens wide while still on treeand after nuts drop the bur is shed Color - yellow-green at dehiscence,RHS N144C Nut: Size - small; average size (mm) - height 14.7, width15.5; average weight 1.26 g. average number nuts per pound - 360.3Form - usually 2 or 3 in a bur, flattened on 1 or 2 sides, mostly;hemispherical in shape, narrowing to an abrupt acute point. Blossomend - little or no tip, distal ⅛ to ¼ end of nut, small fine white hairsexhibited. Basal end - flattened, pubescence-short fine hairs at thetips only Color - lustrous; brown to red brown, RHS 200B, Chroma C*12.83, hue angle 36.80 Shell - thin Hardness of shell - relatively hard,yet not rigid Texture of shell - smooth Percentage of kernel to nut -high-90% shell out Kernel: Size - almost as large as nut size Form -same as nut shape Pellicle - thin brown Flavor - excellent, very sweetColor - greyed-yellow-RHS 162A, Chroma C* 47.95, hue angle 79.38Resistance to insects: no insect susceptibilities noted due to bloomperiod and development, appears to be resistant to gall wasp damageResistance to disease: resistant to chestnut blight (Cryphonectriaparasitica) and leaf spot (Colletrichum gloesporloides) The seguin treeand its nuts herein described may vary in slight detail due to climaticand soil conditions under which the variety may be grown; the presentdescription being of the variety as grown in Camp Hill, Ala. Thebotanical details of this variety of chestnut tree - with colordefinitions (except those in common color terms) referenced to Maerz andPaul Dictionary of Color - are as follows: ‘REVIVAL’ Tree: Size (atmaturity) - large Vigor - very vigorous Trunk: Form - upright withbranches spreading in upper reaches of tree. Texture - relatively smoothColor of bark - Silvergray (13-A-1) Branches: Form - strong Texture -relatively smooth Lenticels - few, small Branching habit - spreading inupper region of tree Color - new wood: reddish brown and glossy, maturewood: silver gray Foliage: Quantity - abundant Density - dense Leaves:Size - large. Average length - 5-7″ (including petiole). Average width-2″ Shape - oblong with acute tip and rounded base Thickness - thickTexture - smooth Margin - dentate Petiole - length: medium. Thickness:medium. Color - Top side - glossy dark green (22-L-12). Underside-lighter green (21-D-7). Bloom: Amount of bloom - heavy Color - creamwhite (17-B-1) Blooming period - late. After leaf out in April Age atwhich tree starts flowering - early; 2-3 years years after graftreplacement. Crop: Bearing - regular (yearly) bearer Productivity -prolific Ripening period - short. September 15-October 1. Distributionof nuts on tree - well distributed Tenacity - burrs crack while on treeand nuts easily release, many falling by themselves Hull: Description -spiny, round burr Size - 3-4″ in diameter Number of nuts - 2-3 per burrDehiscence - splits easily when still on tree. Some entire burrs splitand fall to ground Color - brown (15-A-8) Nut: Size - large. Averagesize - 1⅛″ × 1⅛″ × 1″thick. Average weight - 24-32 nuts per pound Form -broad and ovoid on one side, flat on other side Blossom end - pointedtip Basal end - flattened Color - India Red (7-L-6). Shell - thinHardness of shell - relatively hard, yet not rigid Texture of shell -smooth Percentage of kernel to nut - very high (95%) Kernel: Size -almost as large as nut size Form - same as nut shape Pellicle - thinFlavor - excellent. Very sweet. Color - Oyster white (10-B-1) Resistanceto insects: no unusual susceptibilities noted Resistance to disease:very high inherent resistance to chestnut bark fungus (Endozhiaparastica), no other susceptibilities to any other disease The chestnuttree and its nuts herein described may vary in slight detail due toclimatic and soil conditions under which the variety may be grown; thepresent description being of the variety as grown in Alachua, Fla

1. A new and distinct cultivar of the species Castanea seguinii named‘AU PREMIER’ as described and illustrated herein.